#2 Keon Johnson – Guard – Tennessee
One of the top-tier talents in this year’s draft class is Keon Johnson, a shooting guard who stands just under 6’5” and possesses insane athletic abilities. While he was not the “star of the team” at Tennessee, Johnson still put up impressive numbers, especially since he came off-the-bench in 37% of the games he played in, averaging 11.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and shooting 44.9% from the floor.
Perimeter shooting is a concern for Johnson at the next level, as he shot just 27.1% from three-point range in college, but he does possess a smooth shooting stroke. Most of the time, Keon Johnson makes up for his lack of shooting with his ability to attack his opponents and get to the rim.
Slashing towards the rim off-the-ball and being a threat to score in transition is what makes Keon Johnson such a talented player and one of the most talked about athletes in this year’s draft class. In fact, Johnson set a new NBA Draft Combine record for the max vertical leap, as he recorded a 48” leap at this year’s combine!
A lot of scouts have talked about Johnson reminding them of Latrell Sprewell, a 4x All-Star in this league with the Warriors and Knicks, but he reminds me a lot of Jaylen Brown when he was first coming out of California. Entering the 2016 NBA Draft, Brown was a guy many scouts and executives talked about for his athleticism and length, which is the same kind of chatter going on about Keon Johnson.
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Jaylen Brown has since turned himself into an All-Star in the NBA and is one of the premier two-way wings, so this is high praise for Johnson to live up to, but he checks all of the boxes in terms of having the intangibles to be a really solid two-way player for a long time.
The Pelicans are in a position where they are going to be looking for ways to just add pure talents to their roster that can have a sustainable, long career. Of course they want the best talents and guys that have a chance to be All-Stars, but overall, they just need talented players to put next to Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram.
Keon Johnson has some work to do in order to tap into his potential, but he definitely possesses one of the highest upsides in this draft class because of his leaping abilities. Not to mention, his explosive first step and ability to attack the basket on offense is above-average for his position.
